Jaewon Ryu, MD, JD, serves as President and Chief Executive Officer at Geisinger.
On April 7th, Dr. Ryu will serve on a keynote panel at Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place on April 6-9, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Dr. Ryu's session, click here.
Question: What, from your perspective, is the biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals, and what can they do about it? (i.e. automation, desire for more flexibility, clinician shortages, etc.)
Jaewon Ryu: Hospitals must make health easier for all people. That means bringing high-quality care to people where they are, rather than asking them to come to us. And that requires rethinking and reinventing care delivery on every level to design programs that put people, not buildings, at the center of care. For example, we have launched Geisinger at Home to restore the comfort of house calls for our patients with the greatest need. We’ve also redesigned how we care for people over 65 with our senior-focused primary care model called 65 Forward. This program for our Medicare Advantage population provides patients within the clinic holistic care in one location, ranging from balance and nutrition workshops and a gym to extended primary care appointment times. Our Fresh Food Farmacy enables people to manage diabetes through better nutrition—and has led to an 80 percent decrease in average annual costs and 74 percent fewer admissions for that population. Results like these prove that hospitals must move upstream to focus on the drivers of health. We must double-down on increasing access to primary care and removing the barriers to good health. These efforts will undoubtedly make health easier for all.
Q: Where do you go for inspiration and fresh ideas?
JR: The people we serve. I love accompanying various members of our team on rounds, visiting our patients both in the hospital and out in our community, talking to neighbors at a school event, or chatting with folks in the coffee shop line on Saturday morning. It’s those interactions and conversations, whether at the bedside or in the supermarket, that keep our focus on making health easier for our community. When we know our patients as people within our communities, then we can better meet their needs before and when they need our services. I’m also inspired by our doctors, nurses, and others on the care teams.
Q: What do you see as the most exciting opportunity in healthcare right now?
JR: We know that healthcare costs are climbing at an unsustainable pace. But with any crisis comes opportunity. Whether it is the sustainability of the Medicare program or the increasing costs for employers and consumers, the affordability crisis in healthcare will help spark transformation and innovation over the next ten years. And that’s the part that I look forward to because Geisinger is wired to address these challenges by managing overall health. It’s our core strength. Our ability to innovate, combined with our deep connection to the communities we serve, has led to our most successful programs, from Fresh Food Farmacy to 65 Forward. Even at our medical school, it is that deep connection to the needs of our communities that led to our recent launch of the Geisinger Primary Care Scholars Program, an initiative offering tuition-free medical school to those committed to working within our varied suite of innovative primary care models within our system after graduation and training. I’m excited to see that the tradition of innovation and impact continues at Geisinger. We will focus on making health easier and set an example for systems across the country.
Q: Healthcare has had calls for disruption, innovation and transformation for years now. Do you feel we are seeing that change? Why or why not?
JR: Yes, I think so. It might have been a slow start, but it feels like it might be picking up momentum now, where we can see more clearly what transforming to a value-based system requires. We’ll get there by managing the whole health of people, by moving care upstream to address the drivers of health, by increasing access to primary care, and by moving care out of the walls of our hospitals and into the lives of people.